The Men with the Golden Cuffs (Masters and Mercenaries #2)(77)

“He yelled a lot,” Lara admitted.

Jake grabbed the file folder. “I’ll look over this on the way home.”

Adam stepped forward. “I think you should replace us.”

“What?” Jake asked, staring at his partner.

She liked the way Adam was thinking. He was thinking with an obviously clear head. “Yes, what he said. I’ll take anyone else. Give me the interns. Surely you have interns.”

Ian’s eyebrow arched in that way that let her know that she, too, was a big old dumbass. “No. Oddly enough, I don’t have a bunch of interns willing to take a bullet for a client in order to get me to sign off on three college credit hours. You get Adam and Jake. If Adam prefers to quit his job because he decided to go against my incredibly good advice not to screw the pretty client, then you just get Jake. Or you can face this * all on your own. I hope you know how to deal with snakes, since we know he likes to use them.”

Fuck him. He was right, and he had her in a corner. What was she supposed to do? Should she make the decision her pride demanded? Should she take on whoever the hell this guy was on her own? Or perhaps she could give everything up and skulk off for a quiet life?

She could handle it. She wasn’t giving up anything else. “Fine. But I would like to be kept up to date. I want this settled as quickly as possible.”

“And so do I.” Ian stood. “Liam is looking into the situation. He’ll continue to be Adam and Jake’s backup until such time as I need to send him to Europe or wherever Mr. Black decides to rear his soon to be chopped-off head. Did I mention I’m going to kill that motherf*cker?”

Serena had no idea who Mr. Black was, but she was happy she wasn’t him. Ian Taggart wasn’t a man she wanted to cross. But he was also the man who had placed her in an awkward position. She was going to have to rely on the very men who had humiliated her.

She looked up at Jake, who seemed utterly satisfied with the situation. And then Adam, who wouldn’t meet her eyes. Adam, who had perfectly organized her life right down to the food and wine she would have wanted. She hadn’t had to think. She’d just written because she’d trusted Adam to take care of everything, and it was okay because he liked doing it.

Hadn’t he? He’d told her he did. He’d seemed happy when he was doing it.

Had that been a lie, too?

She was brutally confused and beyond miserable. How would she survive another couple of weeks around them? Especially when Jake was being aggressive, and Adam wouldn’t even look at her.

But she didn’t have a choice. She could deal with them or she could be on her own. She wasn’t too stupid to live. She might be too stupid to be happy, but at least she would be alive.

“All right.” There wasn’t another answer. She was in a corner. She looked up at Jake. He’d put her in a corner. He was going to find out that she wouldn’t stay there forever.





Adam drove through the streets of Dallas, his eyes on the road and his mind on the woman in the backseat.

“I’m fine, Bridget. It’s all right.” She spoke into her phone. He glanced at her briefly through the rearview mirror. She’d forgotten her sunglasses again. She struggled to find the prescription sunglasses she had. He’d specifically requested that Alex pick them up the night before. He’d placed them next to her purse when he’d unpacked her things, but she’d obviously forgotten them again.

When she had her next appointment, he would make sure she got the kind of glasses that changed in the sunlight. The sun in Texas was far too bright to go without UV protection.

He set his eyes back on the road. What was he thinking? She wasn’t his to take care of anymore, and that hurt like hell. He’d f*cked up, and he knew from previous experience that she wouldn’t forgive him. A man really only had one shot with most people. When he screwed up, he was out.

“Bridget, I’m not hiding anything. God, has anyone ever told you you’re a little like a bulldog? Fine.” There was a little pause and then Serena sighed. “No. That didn’t work out.”

Serena jumped a little and held the phone away from her ear. Bridget was shouting, her anger clearly expressed. No satellite could possibly filter the rage that was coming through Serena’s little cell.

Well, he had a fan in Bridget, at least.

“Serena, sweetie? You can put the phone back to your ear. It’s Chris. I’ve taken Bridget’s phone. She’s going to scream somewhere privately now.”

Serena put the phone back, and the conversation seemed to take a much more civil tone.

Jake turned in his seat. “Why are you doing this?”

Bridget wasn’t the only bulldog in the world. “What? Driving? Well, Jacob, when a person wants to get someplace, he has a few options.”

“Shut that shit down, man. Why are you acting like a closed-off *?”

Because he wasn’t going to grovel at her feet. It wouldn’t work. “Do you mind having this conversation in private?”

Jake shook his head. “We are in private. It’s just you and me and Serena.”

“Without Serena.” There was no more Adam and Jake and Serena.

“Buddy, she doesn’t seem to have any problem with talking in front of us. I’m just playing by her rules.”